How To Video

Tweak your Google+ profile

Now that you've joined yet another social network, make sure your profile is up to snuff. Sharon Vaknin shows you how to customize privacy settings, display photos, link to favorites sites, and more.

3:23 / 21 July 2011

Transcript

Hey, everyone.
I'm Sharon Vaknin for Cnet.com.
And today, we're gonna give your Google+ profile a little personality.
But first, let me show you how to tweak a few privacy options.
Head to your Google+ profile and click Edit Profile.
On the left, you'll see a grayed out box that says Send an E-mail.
If you click it and check this box, you can let people in your Circles
or anybody on Google+ e-mail you from your profile.
Your e-mail address won't be displayed but if you wanna keep your inbox private, leave this unchecked.
Underneath that, click the Circles Module.
Here, you can hide the tiled list of people you've added to your Circles and people who have added you to their Circles.
But now that we've gotten that configured, let's add flavor to your About page.
Which is one of the first things people see when they find you on Google+.
Again, make sure you're in the Edit Profile note and click About.
And as much or as
little info as you want, like your job title, location and anything you want to share publicly.
If you leave one of these fields blank, it won't show up.
So don't feel pressure to answer everything.
Over on the right, you can add links to your profile.
Click this section and select Add Custom Link.
You can add your favorite blog or maybe one of your other social profiles.
Under the title in the URL, if it's for a social network like Facebook, you might also wanna check This page is specifically about me.
If it is,
Google will bump that link to the top of search results when people Google you.
Finally, decide which Circles can see your links and hit Save.
At that bottom of your About page is another important privacy option.
Click Search Visibility.
By default, anybody can search for you on Google+, but you can disable this by unchecking Help others find my profile in search results.
Now, head to the top, and add some flavor to your profile with photos.
Click Add some photos here and upload pictures you wanna display
across the top of your About page.
Just remember that this is totally public.
So, don't upload anything you wouldn't wanna share with your boss.
If you feel good about this section, head over to +1's.
This tab displays a list of everything you've +1 around the web.
Like CNET has a +1 button on all of our blogs and you'll see it next to Google search results too.
By default, this tab isn't visible but you can share all your +1's by checking the box here.
To the right of this is Best, which is another one of Google's social
ventures.
There's a good chance you never use it but you can make it useful by putting all of your tweets here.
Check the box then head to Gmail.
Check the box, then head to Gmail.
Click Buzz and find Connected Sites.
Add Twitter under your username and hit Save.
Now your tweets will show up as you publish them.
And finally, the most important part, your Profile Picture.
Click Change Photo to upload a new photo.
If you end up uploading more than 1, people will be able to shuffle through them whenever they're on your page.
When you've made all the changes and have everything set up just the way you like it, hit Done editing and your profile will be saved and ready for the world to see.
For more tips, tricks and guides, visit howto.cnet.com.
And as always, feel free to ask me questions on my Facebook page.
For CNET, I'm Sharon Vaknin and I'll see you on the interwebs.

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